Golf: Perks closer to PGA Tour card

New Zealand golfer Craig Perks needs to earn only about $US80,000 ($193,000) more this year to make his PGA Tour card safe.

Perks, from Manawatu, picked up $US238,000 in one hit for his equal second placing behind Swede Jesper Parnevik in the Honda Classic tournament at Coral Springs, Florida, on Sunday.

The result - so early in the year - has reduced the pressure on Perks to retain his top-125 tour place.

"Now I just need to let the chips fall," he said.

Even though it was a huge result, Perks said he still ranked it only equal with being runner-up in the 1999 New Zealand Open.

He said yesterday that he had never contemplated shooting a final round of 66 after starting the day in 13th equal place.

But that could well have been a 65 had he sunk a 1.5m putt on the 18th which would have forced a playoff with Parnevik.

"That hole was into the wind and was playing the most difficult. I would have liked to have not bogeyed it, a par would have really helped.

"At the end of the day, though, it's all good. I'm thrilled to death."

There was some consolation in that the other top three, including Australian Geoff Ogilvy and Mark Calcavecchia, also bogeyed the last. That saw Perks surge from fourth to equal second and his prizemoney escalate from $US169,000.

"I struggled for the first three days to hit the fairways, but I putted very well and got off to a very good start," he said.

"I never thought I would win, but I didn't think I'd finish second either."

Perks had never made the cut in any previous tournament he had played on the West Coast of the US, where he has already competed in five events this year.

He felt he had prepared perfectly for this season, spending 10 days in the warmth of Las Vegas on one of the tournament players' courses, practising before the tour started.

"I felt I had jump-started what I did last year and yet I had nothing to show for it on the West Coast. I putted so horrendously, but otherwise I was playing well and it didn't make sense when I was missing every cut," he said.

"Now to get it all in one event is great because you never know what will happen at the end of the year.

"I didn't figure I would get this close this quickly."

Before the Honda tournament Perks was not even on the PGA Tour money list and his lowly ranking meant he would have had to sit out six of the next seven events.

He will still miss getting in the next two, the Bay Hill Invitational and the Players Championship, both in Florida.

But now that he has rocketed up to 49th on the earnings list, Perks is hoping to play the BellSouth Classic at Sugarloaf, Georgia, from March 26, a week before the Masters.

"This is going to open up some more starts. You can't sit at home making money," he said.

Perks had not heard about Tiger Woods' playing in a revamped New Zealand PGA at Paraparaumu Beach in January, but said New Zealand deserved two starts on the Australasian Tour.

"I always said if I kept my card I would be there in a flash."

- NZPA